Why are Blizzard allowing themselves to sink deeper and deeper?

[SirBeef]

I'm usually not the one to be negative about Blizzard, but I have to admit, they legitimely deserve everything bit of hate.

First they fucked up the SL launch. Then they gave us a prepatch of the prepatch - there's litterally nothing else to do other than level alts. After that we couldn't play for a few days due to login issues and moronic ques of 1000 people which just disconnect you in the end and restart the queue process. And last night we couldn't even quest normally (apparently Draenor became too popular and servers can't keep up).

WTF are you doing Blizz? What do you lack? Experience? Money? Why can't you do 1 thing right? Why can't you just hire some extra staff and servers temporarily and stop that fuck-fest for once?!

And should I even mention classes? Shoving them from the sky into the deep undergrounds. Ruining brilliant abilities and their mechanics. Giving classes downtime instead of making their gameplay fluid. What kind of people do they have on the designer team really? A bunch of 12yo?

Wait, maybe the story? Ummmm...not! Nothing new ladies and gentlemen! That's right, still the same'ol'Sylvie. Still a bunch of stuff happen that only start to make sense 6 years later.

Shall we go further back? How about Diablo for mobile huh? Or OW2 which is literally a DLC to the first game? Or the completely pointless remasters which almost nobody bothers with?

I was thinking to only throw a few words into my post, but look at the size of these few words. Jesus Blizzard just stop fucking up already. We waited you to milk enough money already, is it not about time to sit down on your behinds and give us something meaningful in return now ?!

All I see is a baby with a full diaper crying about it. You know what the solution to your problem is. Do it or shut up. Because all you are doing is supporting something you disagree with.

But let's go over these points. SL development has been hampered by COVID more than they anticipated. So, as a bone to players, they pushed 9.0 so players can check out the new squish, abilities, talents, and leveling systems. The email we all got gave us a link, and the front page of this site and Wowhead clearly told us that the content wouldn't come until the following week. This is in no way a failing.

Login in queues, happens everytime there is huge demand for the game when something new is dropped. Funny how you bitch about this but you knew it had no content, know people flock back in droves for pre-patches, yet still choose to log on. BTW, I play on two different full servers and had no issues logging in. And this was right at 7pm EDT when the servers went back up.

Class changes are subjective. I don't have an issue with any of my normal classes or the few I've been leveling on Allied races since the prepatch.

So you just hate Sylvanas and hate long term character progression. And also hate not knowing the whilenstory before it happens. I take it you don't read or watch movies unless you find out all the twists and conclusions first right? This is a non issue.

Nothing wrong about a mobile Diablo game reveal. As a long time Day one Diablo 1 player, I have no issues with DI. Sure I was disappointed there was no D4 reveal, but to have vitriol because a game wasn't ready to be announced is highly immature.

All in all you seem entitled and petulant. You should take a step back and enjoy life and relax man.

[arkanon]

"I LOVE wow and im horribly addicted to it, however it is not perfectly tailored to my personal and specific wants and needs, so its a BAD product. However, i will continue to buy it and play it and pay for my sub" Episode 427.

Tune in next episode for "Why covenants are bad and how i would have designed them". Followed right after by "The spec i play is bad and every other spec is good - they should revert my spec to when it was clearly the best"

The horse is dead, its time to let it be.

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Believe me, this is coming from a Warcraft RTS fan who has been ignored for years and got a remake that was worse than the original product.

I was a fan of war3, and was initially looking forward to the remaster/remake/cashgrab, however i realised i just wasnt that into what they were doing. You know how i dealt with that situation?

This is some next level shit, but hear me out; I didnt buy it.

[Triceron]

I was a fan of war3, and was initially looking forward to the remaster/remake/cashgrab, however i realised i just wasnt that into what they were doing. You know how i dealt with that situation?

This is some next level shit, but hear me out; I didnt buy it.

Well thats great if Reforged is all that we're talking about, but the amount of screwups with this release has completely affected someone who bought Warcraft 3 circa 2002 and just wants to play that.

First off, even if you don't own reforged, you still have to download all of its files. So that 2-3 gb install has now become 30gb, with the majority of those files locked to Reforged. Then you wanna play classic War3 online? Well you have to use new battle.net, and the ladder is not implemented. Want to play Reign of Chaos? Sorry but thats completely gone and removed; it doesn't even exist to the point where the campaign uses TFT stats and systems and breaks some of the campaign mechanics. Do you like custom campaigns? Well you can't play your old maps together because they screwed that up too.

Thats how bad Reforged was. It not only made itself not worth buying, but it screwed up the game you already owned.

[arkanon]

Well thats great if Reforged is all that we're talking about, but the amount of screwups with this release has completely affected someone who bought Warcraft 3 circa 2002 and just wants to play that.

First off, even if you don't own reforged, you still have to download all of its files. So that 2-3 gb install has now become 30gb, with the majority of those files locked to Reforged. Then you wanna play classic War3 online? Well you have to use new battle.net, and the ladder is not implemented. Want to play Reign of Chaos? Sorry but thats completely gone and removed; it doesn't even exist to the point where the campaign uses TFT stats and systems and breaks some of the campaign mechanics. Do you like custom campaigns? Well you can't play your old maps together because they screwed that up too.

Thats how bad Reforged was. It not only made itself not worth buying, but it screwed up the game you already owned.

Oh for sure, im well aware of the monumental screwjob that was reforged. I do feel for those who still played vanilla war3, it was a total shambles.

[TrollHunter3000]

Literally the dumbest of all generic answers...

How about no huh? How about Blizzard stop fucking up instead?



You know I was refering to size of the post, literally.

What incentive do they have to stop fucking up if everyone buys their shit anyway?

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Damn bro, you so wise and clever! Look at you, figuring stuff out!

Sorry to break your little Sherlock moment though, but nothing changes. I pay for WoW because I like it - I never said I didn't. But that doesn't change the fact that it's LITERALLY NEVER launched smoothly. Or not balanced well.

The fact I pay doesn't mean I'm fully ok with anything. World isn't as black and white. But I guess you already had that figured out too.



Please excuse me if I disappoint, but I don't pay for trash such as OW2, or any of the remasters. Just WoW (not collector edition tho) and Diablo.

"blizzard keeps fucking up!! but I still like it..."

So what's the problem?

[Ielenia]

I don't have anything personal against Mike Morhaine...but he was the guy who worked on, pushed and approved the Activison Blizzard deal. So...yeah right, suddenly that guy is the saint?

Of course! Can't you see he's virtue-signaling speaking against the Big Bad Blizzard that he totally was not in charge of in defense of the employees? There's absolutely no way he'd say those things if he didn't absolutely believe them and totally not because he admitted he's creating a game developing studio that would be the direct competition to Blizzard and it's totally not like making your competition look bad and you look good is good for business, right?

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Blizzard is hemorrhaging staff even if they haven't joined Dreamhaven yet. Mike has been scalping people too. They don't have to post all their people in the site, if you think they will you are fooling yourself.

Twice you have said "Blizzard is hemorrhaging staff". Do you have any evidence of that claim, or is this just your bias against Blizzard clouding your view of the facts?

[Souflikar]

As it pertains to WOW....the only issue I really have is Blizz over-complicating things with too many systems. I'd be happy with just killing enemies, blowing shit up and a great storyline that's not so convoluted it requires scholars to follow.

[Daedius]

Because players got short term memories that'll play on still regardless of circumstance.

[Kayze]

"I'm not usually the one to be negative about Blizzard, but here's me regurgitating the tired hate rhetoric because mad."

fixed

[Ringthane]

Damn bro, you so wise and clever! Look at you, figuring stuff out!

Sorry to break your little Sherlock moment though, but nothing changes. I pay for WoW because I like it - I never said I didn't. But that doesn't change the fact that it's LITERALLY NEVER launched smoothly. Or not balanced well.

The fact I pay doesn't mean I'm fully ok with anything. World isn't as black and white. But I guess you already had that figured out too.



Please excuse me if I disappoint, but I don't pay for trash such as OW2, or any of the remasters. Just WoW (not collector edition tho) and Diablo.

So if you went into a restaurant, and somebody crapped on a plate and fed it to you, you would have no problem paying for it, even though it isn't what you want and you don't enjoy it. Right? That's exactly what you're saying here. You don't like it, don't pay for it. Problem solved. Plus, you'll have more money to go do other stuff you enjoy.

And don't spew out a bunch of words about how horrible WoW is, and then turn around and say "I like WoW", and then act all surprised when people call you on it.

[stomination]

I'm usually not the one to be negative about Blizzard, but I have to admit, they legitimely deserve everything bit of hate.

First they fucked up the SL launch. Then they gave us a prepatch of the prepatch - there's litterally nothing else to do other than level alts. After that we couldn't play for a few days due to login issues and moronic ques of 1000 people which just disconnect you in the end and restart the queue process. And last night we couldn't even quest normally (apparently Draenor became too popular and servers can't keep up).

WTF are you doing Blizz? What do you lack? Experience? Money? Why can't you do 1 thing right? Why can't you just hire some extra staff and servers temporarily and stop that fuck-fest for once?!

And should I even mention classes? Shoving them from the sky into the deep undergrounds. Ruining brilliant abilities and their mechanics. Giving classes downtime instead of making their gameplay fluid. What kind of people do they have on the designer team really? A bunch of 12yo?

Wait, maybe the story? Ummmm...not! Nothing new ladies and gentlemen! That's right, still the same'ol'Sylvie. Still a bunch of stuff happen that only start to make sense 6 years later.

Shall we go further back? How about Diablo for mobile huh? Or OW2 which is literally a DLC to the first game? Or the completely pointless remasters which almost nobody bothers with?

I was thinking to only throw a few words into my post, but look at the size of these few words. Jesus Blizzard just stop fucking up already. We waited you to milk enough money already, is it not about time to sit down on your behinds and give us something meaningful in return now ?!

You basically described what happens right before every expansion.

[Ringthane]

Where have you seen me imply that a delay is end of the world?

YES?!?! If you confirm something which you then DO NOT DO you fucked up! And guess what! If you confirm something and end up releasing it unbalanced content - you fucked up again!

Blizzard don't have to win with me, they just have to do what they said they will do. Postponing the expansion because they need to polish it is fine and all, but it doesn't mean they didn't fuck up!

I'm sure if you look somewhere on the website of every piece of software ever, it will say something about release dates being subject to change. They said it would release at a certain time, and then they said it would release at another time. That's their prerogative as the owners and developers of the game.

And postponing something to make it better isn't a screwup. It's an improvement. If they would have released it half done, on time, you'd be here whining about how horrible that is. Don't deny it. Blizzard can't win with you, and you're making your problem their problem.

And now, with this thread, our problem.

[Greengrim]

Since there's a lot of comments and I can't reply to everybody individually, I will just write and reply to some of the more common stuff around here.

Before that, I would just like to mention that almost nobody reads the thread completely before commenting, most read the OP and jump onto the keyboard. Please don't expect your words to be taken seriously, if you aren't serious yourself.

Now, the most common replies:

"Don't pay if you don't enjoy the game"

That's the thing, I do enjoy the game. What I do not enjoy is the amount of fuck ups by Blizzard. That's why I ask, after so many fuck ups, when are they going to start doing things right?

"They delayed the launch so they can polish the game before releasing it. I prefer it this way. That's not a fuck up."

I also prefer it this way. But it doesn't mean they didn't add one more fuck up, to the long list of fuck ups...

Imagine you have a date with your crush at 19:00 but somehow manage to trip along the way and fall onto the ground, thus ripping your sweet-ass jeans. Now you have to go back home and change them for new ones, but you end up being 30 minutes late.
Conclusion? Well yeah, you didn't show up looking like trash, but you still FUCKED UP and forced somebody into waiting more than what you agreed initially.

That's literally what's happening with the launch of SL. And while it's for the better good - which I agree - it's still the next fuck up from Blizzard.

"New patches/expansions always lag at first, it's normal."

No it's not! Unless lagging and inability to play are the actually intended goal, it is NOT NORMAL. We just got used to it over the course of 16 years.

Now, I don't care if the traffic is big, or Blizzard are getting DDOSed by specific groups of retards or competitors. Especially now in modern days, when the solution is very simple - rent a bunch of external servers for 1-2 weeks, maybe a month. I blieve that's what they did with WoW Classic and the layering system. But of course, such solution costs money, so Blizzard prefer to fuck up and let us suffer, instead of doing things right.

[Eurhetemec]

That is an extremely high turnover rate. A company losing 40% of their staff each year is awful. Companies don't have high turnover rates for no reason. It's because it is a shit company to work for.

Oddly enough, it's actually a really good company to work for (by any metric you choose), at least where I am. So I can't speak to that. That said, it was during a transition period now that I look at the dates and I haven't got more recent figures. But I do know from other systems I work with that we still lose and gain hundreds of people over a year. It might not be 1200 turnover, it might be more like 300, but either way, it's hundreds. If Blizzard has even 10% turnover in a year, that's 200 people. And if you're going to tell me 10% turnover is shocking and means a company is "bad", when the company has 2000 employees, colour me skeptical. Software development is a different industry, sure, but I'd expect a lot of turnover from projects finishing and starting and so on.

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Since there's a lot of comments and I can't reply to everybody individually, I will just write and reply to some of the more common stuff around here.

Before that, I would just like to mention that almost nobody reads the thread completely before commenting, most read the OP and jump onto the keyboard. Please don't expect your words to be taken seriously, if you aren't serious yourself.

Now, the most common replies:

"Don't pay if you don't enjoy the game"

That's the thing, I do enjoy the game. What I do not enjoy is the amount of fuck ups by Blizzard. That's why I ask, after so many fuck ups, when are they going to start doing things right?

"They delayed the launch so they can polish the game before releasing it. I prefer it this way. That's not a fuck up."

I also prefer it this way. But it doesn't mean they didn't add one more fuck up, to the long list of fuck ups...

Imagine you have a date with your crush at 19:00 but somehow manage to trip along the way and fall onto the ground, thus ripping your sweet-ass jeans. Now you have to go back home and change them for new ones, but you end up being 30 minutes late.
Conclusion? Well yeah, you didn't show up looking like trash, but you still FUCKED UP and forced somebody into waiting more than what you agreed initially.

That's literally what's happening with the launch of SL. And while it's for the better good - which I agree - it's still the next fuck up from Blizzard.

"New patches/expansions always lag at first, it's normal."

No it's not! Unless lagging and inability to play are the actually intended goal, it is NOT NORMAL. We just got used to it over the course of 16 years.

Now, I don't care if the traffic is big, or Blizzard are getting DDOSed by specific groups of retards or competitors. Especially now in modern days, when the solution is very simple - rent a bunch of external servers for 1-2 weeks, maybe a month. I blieve that's what they did with WoW Classic and the layering system. But of course, such solution costs money, so Blizzard prefer to fuck up and let us suffer, instead of doing things right.

This is pretty misinformed stuff.

The first point is just you thinking everything you don't like is a "fuck-up".

The second point is being ridiculous given it's 2020. Like laughably ridiculous. It's typical internet person stuff that you'd never dare say to an actual Blizzard employee in person because you know how silly you'd sound. In another year, you might be able to argue it as a very minor fuck-up, but in 2020? When the delay looks to be weeks? Get real.

The third point just shows you don't understand the problem they've been having. You're "cleverly" offering a solution Blizzard have used before, have talked about at length, and so on, as if it was something new and expensive. It's bizarre to do that. You also think that negates DDOS'ing, which it doesn't, not sure why you think that, but ok. If simple "server load" was the problem, as it was with Classic, this would be a reasonable complaint. But server load wasn't the problem. Some wacky shit with the login servers was the problem. It's not something I've ever seen before and I've been playing since open beta NA (this particular issue - I've seen issues with the login servers before, but normally they just die or operate slowly but reliably - neither was the case here). The number of people hitting them was clearly part of the issue, but not all of it. You whinge about them being "cheap" and so on, but they were so desperate to fix this that they literally turned off the system that checks if you're even subscribed before letting you in (a bunch of people on this forum got to play for free as a result). So just having "more servers" would not have likely fixed this. If they would have, the issue would likely have lasted a day at most. Instead it lasted longer (though seems to be gone now).

Either way, ignorantly suggesting a solution Blizzard know a lot more about than you do and then condemning them as "cheap" only tells us about you, not Blizzard.

[Toby451]

Literally the dumbest of all generic answers...

How about no huh? How about Blizzard stop fucking up instead?



You know I was refering to size of the post, literally.

So you are dissatisfied with a product yet continue to invest your money (and even more importantly, your time) into said product. And your response to being called out on it is "How about no".


Wow. Your life must be truly meaningless to be so invested into a hobby you dislike so much. Its time to use that tiny little walnut sized brain and actually think about what your doing.

[Verdugo]

Just unsubscribe, if enough people do it then they may listen.

Or they will add monetized "surprise mechanics" to recoup the losses. Its a crapshoot with AAA industry.

[Caerrona]

Just unsubscribe, if enough people do it then they may listen.

Or they will add monetized "surprise mechanics" to recoup the losses. Its a crapshoot with AAA industry.

Op thinks they deserve the game tailored to what they want cuz "i pay $15 a month". Hopeless addict reeeeeing into the wind.

[Anakso]

I kind of disagree honestly, not about the title I think blizzard are in general getting worse, but about those first few points specifically indicating that.

The delay, while inconveniant, is blizzard finally showing some achnoledgement that they can't just rush their products to release and sometimes have to make sure its right. Its kind of shitty that they waited so long for sure, and you'd think a company like blizzard could have been a bit more realistic in general with the release time but the delay shows there is at least some of the let's get it right blizzard in there imo.

My only concern is the delay was purely to make shadowlands playable and it'll still feel like shit on release just without quest npcs turning into logs or characters getting forever stuck

The prepatch of a prepatch is just kind of a result of that, the scourge invasion can't last forever and it needs to lead into shadowlands so makes sense for them to want to give people some amount of new stuff now (and get a bunch of changes already in players hands for mass testing so shadowlands can be better) but not want to have a 2 month scourge invasion.

[Ielenia]

Before that, I would just like to mention that almost nobody reads the thread completely before commenting, most read the OP and jump onto the keyboard. Please don't expect your words to be taken seriously, if you aren't serious yourself.

We do read it. The fact we don't agree with you doesn't mean we're not reading what you're posting.

"Don't pay if you don't enjoy the game"

That's the thing, I do enjoy the game. What I do not enjoy is the amount of fuck ups by Blizzard. That's why I ask, after so many fuck ups, when are they going to start doing things right?

"Doing things right" according to whom? You? You do know that WoW has at least a couple million players, and "doing things right" for everyone is a factual impossibility? Also, it's their game. If they want to innovate, it's their prerogative, and last but not least: beta testing is not done to decide which systems should stay and which systems should go and which should be completely revamped from the ground up. Just thought I'd toss that out there.

"They delayed the launch so they can polish the game before releasing it. I prefer it this way. That's not a fuck up."

I also prefer it this way. But it doesn't mean they didn't add one more fuck up, to the long list of fuck ups...

Imagine you have a date with your crush at 19:00 but somehow manage to trip along the way and fall onto the ground, thus ripping your sweet-ass jeans. Now you have to go back home and change them for new ones, but you end up being 30 minutes late.
Conclusion? Well yeah, you didn't show up looking like trash, but you still FUCKED UP and forced somebody into waiting more than what you agreed initially.

That's literally what's happening with the launch of SL. And while it's for the better good - which I agree - it's still the next fuck up from Blizzard.

Two things. First, admitting they need more time to complete things is never a fuck-up. Second, your analogy fails, because Blizzard launching Shadowlands is not a "date". For a date, both parties have to take time off their schedules, and a date lasts for a single evening at worst and a whole afternoon at best. Shadowlands is going to stay with us for at least two years, and it is not required for either party to "take time off their schedules".

Oh, and one more thing: there was no "agreement" on time. Blizzard simply said "we're releasing Shadowlands on X date", and you were not required to take any time off. If you did, that's your fuck-up.

"New patches/expansions always lag at first, it's normal."

No it's not! Unless lagging and inability to play are the actually intended goal, it is NOT NORMAL. We just got used to it over the course of 16 years.

You're equating "normal" to "intentional", and both are not even related.

Now, I don't care if the traffic is big, or Blizzard are getting DDOSed by specific groups of retards or competitors. Especially now in modern days, when the solution is very simple - rent a bunch of external servers for 1-2 weeks, maybe a month. I blieve that's what they did with WoW Classic and the layering system. But of course, such solution costs money, so Blizzard prefer to fuck up and let us suffer, instead of doing things right.

Thank you for admitting you have no idea what you're talking about, here.

[CalamityHeart]

"Don't pay if you don't enjoy the game"

That's the thing, I do enjoy the game. What I do not enjoy is the amount of fuck ups by Blizzard. That's why I ask, after so many fuck ups, when are they going to start doing things right?

You probably know as well as the rest of us do that there's no answer to this question. Especially if this is your brand of "unusual negativity" toward a game that you apparently love. The only answer to this question that you're asking that you'll consider correct is one that allows you to double down on the toxic bullshit you came to vent. So here it is. *ahem*

They'll never stop fucking up. They're never going to start doing things right. Activision has carved the soul out of Blizzard and it shows. WoW is dead. Ion Hazzikostas is a puppet on strings held by money-grubbing lunatics. The devs obviously don't play their own game, lol. The storywriters are on drugs. I miss old Blizzard.

Did I miss anything?

"They delayed the launch so they can polish the game before releasing it. I prefer it this way. That's not a fuck up."

I also prefer it this way. But it doesn't mean they didn't add one more fuck up, to the long list of fuck ups...

Imagine you have a date with your crush at 19:00 but somehow manage to trip along the way and fall onto the ground, thus ripping your sweet-ass jeans. Now you have to go back home and change them for new ones, but you end up being 30 minutes late.
Conclusion? Well yeah, you didn't show up looking like trash, but you still FUCKED UP and forced somebody into waiting more than what you agreed initially.

That's literally what's happening with the launch of SL. And while it's for the better good - which I agree - it's still the next fuck up from Blizzard.

Assuming you're the crush in this scenario, if your date shows up on time looking raggedy, the crush complains. If your date shows up a little bit late, but better prepared to show you a nice evening, the crush still complains. Loudly and vehemently in both cases. Sounds like the crush is a petty and petulant person yearning for something to complain about, and their date probably deserves better, based on first impressions.

You know and acknowledge that Blizzard delaying Shadowlands is unfortunate but will likely be better for the game. "It sucks that it has to happen, but it's a good thing that it's happening." By your own word, you agree with every word in this sentence. But in spite of that, for the sake of having something to argue about, you're just really leaning in on the "It sucks" and nothing past that.

"New patches/expansions always lag at first, it's normal."

No it's not! Unless lagging and inability to play are the actually intended goal, it is NOT NORMAL. We just got used to it over the course of 16 years.

Now, I don't care if the traffic is big, or Blizzard are getting DDOSed by specific groups of retards or competitors. Especially now in modern days, when the solution is very simple - rent a bunch of external servers for 1-2 weeks, maybe a month. I blieve that's what they did with WoW Classic and the layering system. But of course, such solution costs money, so Blizzard prefer to fuck up and let us suffer, instead of doing things right.

Spoken truly like someone who has, at best, a glancing, elementary understanding of whatever they're talking about and is not qualified to offer solutions. You are just the consumer. Same as the rest of us. You may "suffer" from whatever problems make their way to you at the endline, but you are outside the cycle of how those problems come about, how they're resolved, what steps (and deeper problems) need to be overcome between problem and resolution, and how "simple" it really is to even take those steps.

That's not to say you're unjustified in being frustrated at those problems. That's natural. What doesn't fly as much is pretending that you're smarter and savvier than the entirety of Blizzard's tech team. You're not.